Patrice Motsepe, president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) governing body, has today been re-elected unopposed, for a second term.
South Africa’s Motsepe, first elected to head up the continental soccer body in 2021, has been confirmed for a second four-year stint as president at today’s CAF extraordinary general assembly.
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Four years ago, he succeeded Ahmad Ahmad, who had been banned for corruption, following the backing of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. That election was unopposed as well, after four potential opponents all withdrew their candidacies.
He unveiled his bid to be re-elected as CAF president last October, following the CAF general assembly in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa.
The 63-year-old is also the owner of South African top-tier club Mamelodi Sundowns, and last January was ranked by the Forbes publication as that country’s third-richest man.
CAF’s finances over the last few years – covering Motsepe’s first presidential term – have been hit by the need to pay $50 million in compensation – in installments – to what was then the Lagardere Sports agency (now Sportfive) after unilaterally terminating a long-term marketing deal in 2019.
The African body's financial committee vice chair Andrew Kamanga told last October’s congress that the second of these installments was only paid at the end of 2023.
The original dispute came after CAF prematurely canceled its long-term deal with Lagardere – which covered marketing, sponsorship, and broadcast rights – five years ago.
Motsepe has said that the eventual aim, regarding CAF’s income, is to increase revenues to $1 billion across the next eight years.
At the end of January, oil and gas giant TotalEnergies was unveiled as having extended its significant commercial deal with CAF for the next four years.
This new deal, unveiled earlier this week, covers 12 CAF competitions in the 2025-2028 cycle that will be title-sponsored by TotalEnergies, including the high-profile Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) men's national teams tournament in 2025 and 2027.
TotalEnergies has sponsored CAF competitions since 2016, with this latest renewal taking the partnership beyond a decade in length, with the value being worth a reported $31.25 million per year, or $250 million total over the initial eight years of the deal.
Motsepe has previously said that the previous AFCON, held in Ivory Coast early last year, generated a profit of $72 million.
January also saw it confirmed that Véron Mosengo-Omba, the general secretary of African soccer’s CAF governing body, will not face legal action in Switzerland over alleged suspicious financial activities, after the Swiss Public Prosecutors Office declined to open proceedings against him.
An investigation was launched in October 2024 over allegations that he had received suspicious payments relating to certain Swiss bank accounts, however, the Swiss Public Prosecutors Office found no basis to bring charges upon Mosengo-Omba.
For his part, Mosengo-Omba – who was appointed alongside Motsepe in 2021 – has always proclaimed his innocence.
He is not out of the woods yet, however, as despite the resolution of the investigation in Switzerland, a further internal inquiry at the CAF into misconduct allegations against him remains.
That investigation has been underway since August 2024, when the CAF tapped its audit and governance committee to probe alleged violations of its governance and auditing regulations by the CAF Secretariat.
